A Little Different
by Piratefish
Summary: Intrigue. Secrets. Despair. You are not ready for life as a Shinobi. But then, who is?


Steps crunching on the familiar gravel pathway leading up to her house, Sakura was fairly skipping. Passed, passed, passed! She hadn't been worried: The written tests in the Academy practically took care of themselves, and the final exam wasn't much different. Ninjutsu was easy enough too! The physical parts of the test weren't quite as simple, but she'd managed. It wasn't like she'd been slacking off or anything, unlike a number of her peers, especially that blond idiot! Come to think of it, he didn't pass, did he? He'd been hanging onto that swing-set like... well, he had looked very sad. There was the door! She couldn't wait!

"I graduated!" She shouted, joyful, smiling. Her mother was the closest, and she closed the distance in an unladylike dash. The hug was safe and warm, until two unexpected hands grabbed her and whirled her around, her father grinning widely himself.

"That's our girl!"

* * *

«I graduated.» Sasuke's voice was toneless. His father's nod was similarly devoid of emotion, and though Mikoto managed a smile, it was less than what it had once been. If there was any joy in it, it was buried deep.

"We expected no less."

* * *

The door flew open, hours after sunset, the scents of blood and sweat following the orange apparation shuffling into his apartment. His headband glinted dully on his forehead.

«I graduated.» Naruto said out loud, to the empty room.

* * *

Sasuke was intent from the moment he entered the room, a large change from his regular attitude in this environment. "Genius" they called him, and left it at that. No real challenges, no real challengers, no real hardships. Not like father's training, mother's little tests. Maybe he'd have been out in the field already, had he only asked for it. But father had...

His thoughts taking a familiar turn, the Uchiha scion jerked himself out of it. No time for bitterness: the coming pronouncements would be crucial for the rest of his career. But surely they would make a team fitting for an Uchiha. Or "the" Uchiha, as he was sometimes called, and which always left him struggling with bitter anger, whenever he overheard it. Iruka raised his voice: the chuunin was sporting bandages across his right arm and lower torso, but left no explanation as to why. Perhaps he'd fallen over when drunk, celebrating his being finally rid of this headache of a class.

Sasuke began to scan the jounin-instructors, perhaps there'd be someon-

_Asuma?_

And he wasn't so unobservant that Sasuke's stupefied expression didn't register. The former Guardian gave him a slight smile, a small nod, both gestures so thoroughly _genuine_ as to be almost unrecognizable.

Sasuke's mind was whirling madly: This wasn't right, _he _shouldn't be here, _that_ part of his life was-

"Attention, students!"

Iruka had finally begun speaking. Sasuke managed to wrench himself from yet another desperate rumination, instead focusing on the comforting drone of his least awful sensei.

Team after team were announced, until:

"Team 7 will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. Their sensei will be-"

"Me."

A woman stepped forward, purple-haired and clad in a jounin vest, steel armor-plating covering her forearms and shins. Her expression was carefully schooled into polite indifference: Sasuke could tell when someone was deliberately making an effort to look bland, though her eyes were as alert as any Uchiha.

«Follow.»

And they did, as the woman walked out of the classroom, out of the Academy, out of the village itself, and she didn't say a word. Didn't look at them, didn't seem to notice her surroundings at all, except a small nod to the gatekeepers.

Perhaps this wasn't the worst _possible_ team to be stuck with, but any upsides weren't immediately visible. Damn it.

In an unremarkable clearing about twenty minutes walk from the village, and coincidentally twenty minutes from any road or path the genin could observe, the woman suddenly stopped. A manic grin suddenly spread across her face, as she drew three kunai and a smoke bomb.

"Time for some FUN!"

The smoke bomb went off with a soft "whuff", shrouding the mystery-jounin entirely. The last thing to go was her damnable grin.

Out of the cloud flew the kunai. Sasuke jerked to the side, barely evading. It hadn't been aimed to kill or even wound, but rather to give a thin gash across his left cheek. If not, he _would_ have been impaled.

Despite himself, he grinned, his eyes flicking toward his new teammates. Almost like sparring with father.

Naruto, closest to him, looked shocked, but was also uninjured. The blond wasn't quick enough to dodge something like that, and hadn't moved since the crazy jounin disappeared, so how-

Another kunai, aimed between his legs, but slower, avoidable. That was _not_ like any spars with father. His face pale, Sasuke drew pre-wired shruiken, readied himself to throw.

A flicker of motion; the blur resolved itself into their teacher, behind Sakura, pinning her oddly. She had positioned herself both behind Sakura and Naruto, who blocked the pink-haired girl from his line of fire, and Sasuke immediately dashed towards the cloud of smoke, trying for a clear shot.

Just in time to see their opponent lean forward and deliver an languid, sensual lick to the freely bleeding cut to Sakura's cheek, gaze locked on her new student's wide, green eyes.

He stumbled, just a little, just enough for the smoke still rising from the orb now attached to a holster on the jounin's wrist to fully conceal both kunoichi.

He looked to his only visible teammate, more emotions than he'd realized the boy could process moved across his face in quick succession.

His own face probably looked much the same.

Definitely not like father.

_Now-_

* * *

_WHAT?!_

The woman's tongue left a burning trail along her cheek, that wasn't right, she'd been cut before, knew how it was supposed to feel, but...

_What the HELL?!_

Sakura shook her head. She couldn't see anything, but a quick glance behind her had shown what lock the crazy woman was using, she knew how to get out. It gave the slight inkling of recognition she'd had since their psycho teacher's name had been called out a stronger feeling, but-

_No time now._

This was going to hurt.

"We're all alone here, Sa-_ku-_raaah..." The woman's hot breath tickled her ear, her tone lilting, teasing. Was she actually trying to _cuddle?_

_Focus._

Sakura moved her right elbow _into_ the hold , twisted her torso just a little, and dropped as far as she could. Then she braced herself, and twisted _hard_ in the other direction.

_Fuck. Ow._

"Well, well, well. I _am_ impressed." The jounin hadn't lost her teasing tone.

She also hadn't loosened her grip _before_ Sakura dislocated her own arm.

At least she was out of the lock, and in the least damaging manner possible, according to the scrolls she had scanned. But not the least painful.

_Didn't think it would hurt_ _this_ _much..._

At least she was free now, though she only had her off-hand available, which meant no jutsu. She unleashed a minor assortment of shruiken, while dashing towards the edge of the smoke.

A light tap hit her on the back of the neck, and the world greyed-

* * *

Out of the smoke came Sakura, flopping to the ground, not moving. Her arm looked broken or something. It looked _bad._

_I'll kill her!_

A ball of fire rushed forward, aimed far enough from Sakura to leave her undisturbed.

And winked out, without a trace, when it touched the smokescreen.

"Hah!" He shouted. Naruto was almost ready with his own technique, arcs of chakra around his left arm just barely visible. The energy gathered in his right leg was not.

The madwoman appeared from her cover, trailing even more of that unholy smoke.

Naruto jumped.

The world blurred as he corkscrewed forward-

_-way_ off target-

-hit a tree-

-crashed through-

-hit another-

_Oh-_

* * *

_Shit. _

She was immune to fire? Well, that reduced his options. Close combat was out, she was too fast, had too many opportunities where he had none. Snaring her with wire was the only shot he had.

But first...

The kunai deflected off its slower predecessor, with a third hiding in the shadow of its original path. Three knives flying straight at her, the fastest to the left, second fastest direct center, the last close by it to the right, thrown with all the finesse he could muster.

She bent over backwards with serpentine grace, evading them all with several inches to spare. It did... interesting things to her anatomy, but now there was no time, she didn't dodge as he wanted, the wire-wrapped shruiken were too far from her for the wire to reach-

And then she was too close. He managed to evade the first punch, and angle himself so the second didn't break his ribs.

She was open! He put his all into a side-kick, as fast, as perfect, as he could-

She ducked. Her evil leer widened, if that was possible.

* * *

Anko landed possibly the sweetest uppercut she ever had, her last remaining student flying in a clean arc, almost exactly _not_ like a swan if you threw it off a cliff, but it somehow did remind her of that. Fun times.

And now all of them were unconscious.

She'd give them five minutes before she slapped them awake.

* * *

His jaw wasn't broken. He'd checked, twice.

"You guys actually weren't bad! Except you, blondie. You literally KO'd yourself in a pretty hilarious way. But maybe I'll keep you around for the entertainment-value!"

"You, just, attacked us! You didn't warn us or anything!" Said blondie was pissed. And, almost a little, hurt?

The crazy woman just stared flatly at him. Her mood seemed completely different from the second before, dead seriousness as opposed to manic glee.

"You don't _get_ warnings."

That managed to get Naruto to shut up for a moment. His eyes were glassy.

"Better." The woman raised a hand in a half-seal, and announced: "You're not _real _genin yet. You've gotta find me first. You have... Three hours."

And disappeared in into smoke.

Sasuke just looked, disbelieving, at the vanishing wisp of smoke.

An Uchiha didn't _gape._

* * *

Sasuke let himself in; the house's owner wouldn't mind. It wasn't like he didn't visit several times a week. About on-cue, a voice called out, its tone a remarkable combination of exhaustion, exasperation, and angry energy:

"Oh, god, _just _got back, what even _is _your _deal- _Oh hey, Sasuke. Could you make dinner or something, I am _dead_ tired right now.

Uchiha Obito splattered across a brand new couch, fresh bloodstains quite obvious over his standard, dark, form-fitting uniform.

He then began to snore.

Sasuke couldn't quite suppress a grin, and moved to wake him up. Bucket of water would do nicely, wouldn't it?

* * *

Naruto, not really having many other options, went to the Hokage.

"Hey ojii-san! Who's my jounin-sensei, and where is she?"

Hatake Sakumo managed to overcome a strong urge to smash his face straight down onto his desk.

"Naruto, this _really _isn't how you're supposed to pass the genin-exam..."

* * *

Sakura had tracked down her target's name fairly easily, and indeed some personal information, like her address, which was unoccupied and seemed to be heavily trapped, so that was out.

Luckily she also found out who her sensei's sensei was.

Which was why she was standing outside Konoha Research and Development's main building. She took a deep breath, marched up to the reception, and forced out:

"Hello, I'm on a mission from sensei, could I talk a bit with Orochimaru-sama please?"


End file.
